Welcome to the world of Jenniffer Wardell, author of “Beast Charming," "Fairy Godmothers, Inc," "Fighting Sleep" and more. It's a place where fantasy runs smack into reality (after which they both exchange business cards and hope no one calls the insurance company). Perfect for fans of Terry Pratchett and Mercedes Lackey's "500 Kingdoms" series.

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Friday, July 11, 2014

Why paranormal is so popular

Johnny
Worthen, author of the new "Eleanor," is stopping by to talk about why
everyone can't get enough of the paranormal:

Paranormal
writing reaches for that often overlooked emotion in the human spirit: Wonder.
Akin to love and horror, It is a juvenile emotion often lost in adulthood,
beaten out by cynicism and experience. But in the best of us, there’s always at
least a little spark looking for wonder in the world.

Wonder
is the feeling of realizing there’s more to the world than we thought, more
than we know and in the paranormal, more even than is known. A touch of magick
in any setting creates a cascade of possibility and excitement. This too is in
your world. How will you adjust to it? What else might be there?

That’s
what Paranormal does that other genres don’t do. Whereas a person might
levitate in a science fiction story with the aid of technology, if it’s done in
a paranormal setting, it’s a whole different event. It’s a new nature that the
world must respond to in a different way. It rattles us in a way that open
ended technological progress doesn’t.

There
are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than
are dreamt of in your philosophy.

- Hamlet
(1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio

Wonder.
It is a powerful emotional tool but like a strong spice, a little goes a long
way. If there’s too much magick in a story, it’s not wonderful, it’s reality.
There’s a place for that but when miracles are commonplace, they cease being
miracles.

In ELEANOR, THE UNSEEN for example, I go to great pains
to create a realistic setting, with honest modern characters and places. Then
into that, I drop a single paranormal thing - a Skinwalker – and allow the
world to react to that. How the characters respond – fear or wonder, hostility
or acceptance is the crucible that tests them.

Moreover, I chose to frame the miraculous in my story as
realistically as possible. I created costs for it, recognizing (though taking
some liberties with) the laws of conservation of mass and energy. This was
meant to slide my paranormal out of the realm of the supernatural and into the
real of possible biological.

Eleanor’s wonderful power is balanced by terrible costs –
the pain, always pain, change is pain. It’s work to do it, requires planning
and time. Vulnerability. All this creates a metaphor for the story; change and
acceptance, appearances versus reality, the terrible necessity of change and
the desire to blend in.

Eleanor, shy, unassuming Eleanor is in fact wonderful,
more wonderful than anyone can imagine. When the wonder is revealed does it
mean she’s different or the world is bigger than anyone thought? Who must
change?